


Good Luck Charm

by innerslytherin



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, physical assault mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innerslytherin/pseuds/innerslytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave knows he's getting too close to Prentiss, but he can't seem to help himself.  Before a dangerous assignment, he gives her a 'good luck charm'.  <i>Spoilers for "Minimal Loss"</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Luck Charm

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://severity-softly.livejournal.com/profile)[**severity_softly**](http://severity-softly.livejournal.com/) for the beta! And yes, I seem to be stuck on shipping Dave/Em after Minimal Loss. ;)

    
Before  
    
"You'll be fine," Dave assured her over coffee.  He didn't know why he was the only one she seemed to talk to like this.  Maybe it was because he'd come back after she was on the team.  He knew she'd had a rocky start in the BAU.   
    
Emily sighed and curled her fingers around her mug.  "I keep telling myself that.  And I'm glad I'll have Spencer with me.  It's the other woman, Nancy Lund, I'm not sure about.  And situations that are charged with religious tension can go bad so quickly."   
    
"You'll be fine," Dave said again.  "You're a good agent, Emily.  You know the procedures, and you know when to throw procedure out the window and go on instinct.  Just keep in mind that religious cults, particularly the kind we think this one is, typically believe that women are inferior."   
    
She smiled.  "So keep my mouth shut, is that what you're saying?"  She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and gazed at him warmly.   
    
God, she was beautiful.  He knew he ought to keep their relationship strictly business, but there were times he couldn't resist wanting to give her more.   
    
"Be careful," he murmured.  "That's all I'm saying."  He paused, then pulled a small box out of his pocket, hoping she would understand.  "I...found this and thought of you," he said hesitantly.   
    
She looked surprised as he slid the box across the table, then her lips parted and she stared at him.  He felt suddenly, stupidly grateful that the box was clearly too large to hold a ring.  He wasn't sure the surprise in her expression wouldn't slip into pity if he'd done that.  He nodded down at the box.   
    
"Go on."   
    
She took it and opened it, then smiled broadly.  "David..."   
    
"I just...ah...call it a good luck charm."   
    
She took the Saint Michael's medal out of the box, then smiled and swept her hair up off her neck.  "Would you put it on for me?"   
    
Dave swallowed, then nodded and moved around the table to fasten it around her neck.  When he was done she let her hair spill back down over his hands.  He settled his hands down on her shoulders.  "Be careful, Em," he murmured, and kissed the top of her head.  She leaned back against him, smiling up at him.

 

    
During

"We've got to go in," Aaron said.   
    
"We'd be risking the lives of everyone in there," Dave replied.  
   
Glass shattered, and then Benjamin Cyrus' voice filled Dave's ears.  "Proverbs 20:30 tells us '_Blows and wounds cleanse away evil_'."

There was the sound of an impact and Emily grunted, her pained noises making Dave wince.  Aaron looked like he was about to jump out of his seat; Dave was jealous that Aaron could so openly show his distress.  It was killing Dave to listen to this, but he couldn't go charging in.  It was what Cyrus wanted.

"I can take it."

"Oh, you can take it?"  Another smack of fist against flesh.  She groaned, but a surge of pride went through Dave.

"Wait, wait!  Listen to what she's saying."  Hotch glared at him.  It made Dave want to shake him.  This was exactly why it had been a bad idea to put Dave in charge of the negotiations.  Aaron would be less inclined to challenge someone he didn't know as well.

"I can take it!"  The breathy words in his headphones sent a spasm through his tensed muscles.  He didn't want her to take it.  He wanted to go in and get her out _now_.  And those words, while meant for him, were inflaming Cyrus' rage.   
   
"She's antagonizing him," Derek pointed out.

"She's not talking to him," Dave retorted, and Aaron finally realized what was going on.  "She's talking to us," he said.  "She's telling us not to come in."

_She was talking to me_.  Dave trusted her instincts.  She was a hell of an agent and a hell of a woman.  They wouldn't go in.  But God, he hated sitting here and waiting.

Why those words?  "I can take it."  They were familiar words, words Dave hated.  They were words that spoke of domestic abuse, of a woman who was well acquainted with the pain of having someone's anger vented on her.   
    
_Not Emily_, he pleaded.  _Not my beautiful, strong, brave Emily_.   
    
But even beautiful, strong, brave women had been abused before.  And she clearly was well out of whatever relationship had brought those particular words to her lips.   
    
Still, he ached for both her past pain as well as her present.   
    
He didn't know how he was going to look Cyrus in the eye again without wanting to kill him, but somehow he was going to manage it.  Because so help him God, he was going to get Emily and Reid out of there alive.   
 

 

    
After   
    
He'd seen her approach Spencer on the jet, but he had kept his distance.  He wasn't sure if she would understand, but he had a feeling he would break down if he tried to talk to her.  He'd held his fear and anxiety and anger down so hard during the negotiations that he didn't know what would happen when he let go of it.  She was safe, but that hadn't gotten rid of that sickening turmoil of emotions inside him.   
    
Just before they began the descent, Hotch slid into the seat next to him.  "Will you take Emily home?  I'm going to have Morgan drive Reid.  I don't think either of them should be alone just yet."   
    
Dave cocked an eyebrow, wondering why JJ wasn't driving Emily home and who would be with Hotch, who also probably shouldn't be alone just yet.  But he nodded.   
    
Hotch seemed to understand the unspoken question.  He rested a hand on Dave's shoulder.  "I'll be all right," he said, and smiled faintly.  Then he slid out of the seat again and the pilot came over the intercom, asking them to fasten their seat belts.   
    
Hotch must have told Emily what he was doing, because she didn't look surprised when Dave showed up at her elbow.  She just nodded at him and followed him to his truck.  When they got back to her apartment, she let them in, dropped her bag, and went straight to the kitchen.  By the time he'd locked the door and followed her, she had two glasses half filled with amber liquid.  She held one out, but he crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her.   
    
Emily made a noise of surprise, then he heard the glasses clunk down on the counter.  Her arms went tightly around his waist.   
    
"I'm sorry," he whispered.  "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."  And she was shushing him and pressing fingers lightly against his mouth, and then finally her lips replaced her fingers, and they kissed desperately, her fingers wound in his hair.  He held her tightly against him and she pressed close, though he knew she was probably hiding bruises that had to be hurting.   
    
"David, don't apologize to me," she whispered fiercely against his lips.  "You got us out."    
    
"I had to just sit there and listen," he murmured.  "While he hurt you.  And I couldn't do anything."   
    
"You got us out," she repeated.   
    
He leaned back to look down at her and realized she was still wearing the Saint Michael's medallion.  His fingers brushed against it.   
    
"I kept you with me," she said, looking up at him.  "I knew you'd be listening to us, and I kept you with me the whole time."  She lifted her face to kiss him again.  "You must be my good luck charm."

He traced a finger down her cheek.  "I can live with that."  
 


End file.
